Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2019 Appropriations: Overview

August 24, 2018 –
May 7, 2019
R45295

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies. The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is usually funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate.

President Trump submitted his FY2019 budget request on February 12, 2018. The request included a total of $49.1 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $282 million for the CFTC. The $49.1 billion figure includes $3 billion for a legislative provision on government-wide transfers (Section 737).

The 115th Congress House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reported FSGG appropriations bills (H.R. 6258, H.Rept. 115-792 and S. 3107, S.Rept. 115-281) and both houses passed different versions of a broader bill (H.R. 6147) that would have provided FY2019 appropriations. The House-passed H.R. 6147 would have provided a combined total of $45.9 billion for the FSGG agencies, while the Senate-passed H.R. 6147 would have provided $45.7 billion. In both cases, the largest differences compared to the President’s request were in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA), the funding for the Executive Office of the President, and the absence of the Section 737 provision on government-wide transfers in both bills. No full-year FY2019 FSGG bill was enacted prior to the end of FY2018. The FSGG agencies were provided continuing appropriations until December 7, 2018, in P.L. 115-245 and until December 21, 2018, in P.L. 115-298. No final bill was enacted, and funding for FSGG agencies, along with much of the rest of the government, lapsed on December 22, 2018. No further appropriations occurred prior to the 116th Congress.

In the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 21, which contained six full FY2019 appropriations bills, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to those passed by the Senate in the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019. On January 23, 2019, the House passed H.R. 648, also containing six appropriations bills, which was reportedly based on a potential conference report from the 115th Congress and would have provided $46.0 billion for FSGG appropriations. (Neither of these bills provided full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security.) The Senate did not act on either of these bills.

On February 14, 2019, both the House and the Senate passed a conference report (H.Rept. 116-9) for H.J.Res. 31, containing seven appropriations bills providing full FY2019 funding for the government’s operations that had not been previously funded, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to H.R. 648. The President signed the resolution on February 15, 2019, enacting it into law as P.L. 116-6. The law provides $45.7 billion in the FSGG appropriations portion (Division D), which includes the funding for the CFTC. This is $3.4 billion less than the President’s request, with the bulk of this due to the absence of the Section 737 transfer authority in P.L. 116-6. Other notable differences include the funding for GSA and the Executive Office of the President.

Although financial services are a major focus of the FSGG appropriations bills, these bills do not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are funded outside of the appropriations process. The FSGG bills have, however, often contained additional legislative provisions relating to such agencies, as is the case with H.R. 6258/H.R. 6147 in the 115th Congress, whose Title IX contained language from a number of different bills relating to financial regulation. P.L. 116-6 did not contain this language.

Summary

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies. The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is usually funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate.

President Trump submitted his FY2019 budget request on February 12, 2018. The request included a total of $49.1 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $282 million for the CFTC. The $49.1 billion figure includes $3 billion for a legislative provision on government-wide transfers (Section 737).

The 115th Congress House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reported FSGG appropriations bills (H.R. 6258, H.Rept. 115-792 and S. 3107, S.Rept. 115-281) and both houses passed different versions of a broader bill (H.R. 6147) that would have provided FY2019 appropriations. The House-passed H.R. 6147 would have provided a combined total of $45.9 billion for the FSGG agencies, while the Senate-passed H.R. 6147 would have provided $45.7 billion. In both cases, the largest differences compared to the President's request were in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA), the funding for the Executive Office of the President, and the absence of the Section 737 provision on government-wide transfers in both bills. No full-year FY2019 FSGG bill was enacted prior to the end of FY2018. The FSGG agencies were provided continuing appropriations until December 7, 2018, in P.L. 115-245 and until December 21, 2018, in P.L. 115-298. No final bill was enacted, and funding for FSGG agencies, along with much of the rest of the government, lapsed on December 22, 2018. No further appropriations occurred prior to the 116th Congress.

In the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 21, which contained six full FY2019 appropriations bills, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to those passed by the Senate in the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019. On January 23, 2019, the House passed H.R. 648, also containing six appropriations bills, which was reportedly based on a potential conference report from the 115th Congress and would have provided $46.0 billion for FSGG appropriations. (Neither of these bills provided full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security.) The Senate did not act on either of these bills.

On February 14, 2019, both the House and the Senate passed a conference report (H.Rept. 116-9) for H.J.Res. 31, containing seven appropriations bills providing full FY2019 funding for the government's operations that had not been previously funded, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to H.R. 648. The President signed the resolution on February 15, 2019, enacting it into law as P.L. 116-6. The law provides $45.7 billion in the FSGG appropriations portion (Division D), which includes the funding for the CFTC. This is $3.4 billion less than the President's request, with the bulk of this due to the absence of the Section 737 transfer authority in P.L. 116-6. Other notable differences include the funding for GSA and the Executive Office of the President.

Although financial services are a major focus of the FSGG appropriations bills, these bills do not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are funded outside of the appropriations process. The FSGG bills have, however, often contained additional legislative provisions relating to such agencies, as is the case with H.R. 6258/H.R. 6147 in the 115th Congress, whose Title IX contained language from a number of different bills relating to financial regulation. P.L. 116-6 did not contain this language.

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury (Title I), the Executive Office of the President (EOP; Title II), the judiciary (Title III), the District of Columbia (Title IV), and more than two dozen independent agencies (Title V). The bill typically funds mandatory retirement accounts in Title VI, which also contains additional general provisions applying to the funding provided to agencies through the FSGG bill. Title VII typically contains general provisions applying government-wide. The FSGG bill has also often contained provisions relating to the U.S. policy toward Cuba.1

The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate. Where the CFTC is funded upon enactment depends on which chamber originated the law, which typically alternates annually. Thus, the enacted amounts for the CFTC typically are in the Agriculture appropriations bill one year and FSGG the following year.

This structure has existed in its current form since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. Although financial services are a major focus of the bill, the FSGG appropriations bill does not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are instead funded outside of the appropriations process. It is not uncommon for legislative provisions addressing various financial regulatory issues to be included in titles at the end of the bill.

Administration and Congressional Action

115th Congress

President Trump submitted his FY2019 budget request on February 12, 2018. The request included a total of $49.1 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $282 million for the CFTC.2 This total included a proposed legislative provision on government-wide transfer authority in Section 737, which was estimated at $3 billion by the appropriations committees.3

The House Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2019 (H.R. 6258, H.Rept. 115-792)on June 15, 2018.4 Total FY2019 funding in the reported bill would have beeen $45.7 billion, with another $255 million for the CFTC included in the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 5961, H.Rept. 115-706).5 The combined total of $45.9 billion would have been about $3.2 billion below the President's FY2019 request, with the largest differences in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA) and in language relating to government-wide transfers that was requested by the President but not included in the legislation (Section 737).

H.R. 6258 was included as Division B of H.R. 6147, the Interior appropriations bill, when it was considered by the House of Representatives beginning on July 17, 2018. The bill was amended numerous times, shifting funding among FSGG agencies but not changing the FSGG totals.6H.R. 6147 passed the House on July 19, 2018.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2019 (S. 3107, S.Rept. 115-281) on June 28, 2018.7 Funding in S. 3107 totaled $45.9 billion, about $3.2 billion below the President's FY2019 request, with the largest differences in the funding for the GSA and in the government-wide transfers requested language (Section 737).

The Senate began floor consideration of H.R. 6147 on July 24, 2018, including the text of S. 3107 as Division B of the amendment in the nature of a substitute (S.Amdt. 3399). The amendment also included three other appropriations bills. The amended version of H.R. 6147 was passed by the Senate on August 1, 2018.

The conference committee on H.R. 6147 convened on September 13, 2018. No conference report was reported, however, prior to the end of the fiscal year. Instead, Division C of P.L. 115-245, enacted on September 28, 2018, generally provided for continuing appropriations at FY2018 levels for the FSGG agencies through December 7, 2018.8 A further continuing resolution (P.L. 115-298) was passed providing funding through December 21, 2018. No additional appropriations were passed in the 115th Congress, leading to a funding lapse for the FSGG agencies as well as those funded in six other appropriations bills9 beginning on December 22, 2018.

116th Congress

The House of Representatives passed two consolidated appropriations bills in January 2019. H.R. 21—which contained six full FY2019 appropriations bills, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to those passed by the Senate in the 115th Congress—passed on January 3, 2019. H.R. 21 would have provided a total of $45.9 billion for the FSGG agencies, with the CFTC funding included with FSGG funding in Division B, following the Senate structure. On January 23, 2019, the House passed H.R. 648, also containing the same six full FY2019 appropriations bills, which was reportedly based on a potential conference report from the 115th Congress.10H.R. 648 would have provided $46.0 billion for the FSGG agencies, with the FSGG portion—including CFTC funding—in Division C. Neither of these bills included the financial regulatory provisions in Title IX of the House-passed bill in the 115th Congress. The Senate did not act on either of these bills.

On February 14, 2019, the House and the Senate agreed to a conference report (H.Rept. 116-9) on H.J.Res 31, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, containing seven appropriations bills. This act provides full FY2019 funding for the government's operations that had not been previously funded, including FSGG provisions nearly identical to H.R. 648, but located in Division D. The primary substantive differences were in the Department of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund and in funding for GSA. The President signed the resolution on February 15, 2019, enacting it into law as P.L. 116-6.

P.L. 116-6 included $45.7 billion in FSGG funding, including the CFTC. It did not include the Title IX financial regulatory provisions passed by the House in the 115th Congress. The final total was approximately $3.4 billion less than the President's request, with most of the difference coming from the Section 737 transfer authority, which was not included by Congress. Other notable differences included the funding for the GSA and the Executive Office of the President.

Table 1 below reflects the status of FSGG appropriations measures at key points in the appropriations process across the 115th and 116th Congresses. Table 2 lists the broad amounts requested by the President and included in the various FSGG bills, largely by title, and Table 3details the amounts for the independent agencies. Specific columns in Table 2 and Table 3 are FSGG agencies' enacted amounts for FY2018, the President's FY2019 request, the FY2019 amounts from the 115th Congress bills (H.R. 6147 as passed by the House and H.R. 6147 as passed by the Senate), the FY2019 amounts from the 116th Congress House-passed bills (H.R. 21 and H.R. 648), and the final FY2019 enacted amounts from P.L. 116-6.

Table 1. Status of FY2019 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations

Notes: Totals for each column include funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC is funded in the House through the Agriculture appropriations bill and in the Senate through the FSGG bill. Figures are net, reflecting rescissions and offsetting collections. The mandatory spending for the President's salary is contained in Title VI, Section 619, whereas the rest of presidential spending is in Title II. The Mandatory Retirement Accounts amount stems from Title VI, Section 619. Title VI, Section 620 of P.L. 116-6, H.R. 21, H.R. 648 and the Senate-passed H.R. 6147, but not the House-passed version of H.R. 6147, includes $1 million for Public Company and Accounting Oversight Board scholarships, which is reflected under "Independent Agencies." Title VI, Section 633 of P.L. 116-6 and of H.R. 648 both include $2 million for enhancements to www.oversight.gov, which is reflected under "Independent Agencies." The House-passed H.R. 6147 Title IX's legislative provisions result in a $126 million savings, which is included in the total. The President requested a legislative provision (Section 737) that was estimated at $3 billion, which is included in the total FSGG amount, but not the individual totals for the FY2019 request. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Notes: All figures are rounded. Columns may not sum due to rounding. Figures in parentheses reflect offsetting collections and are not totaled.

a. The CFTC is funded in the House through the Agriculture appropriations bill and in the Senate through the FSGG bill.

b. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are funded by collecting regulatory fees, often resulting in no direct appropriations. Therefore, the amounts shown for the FCC and SEC represent budgetary resources, but those amounts are not included in the table totals. The SEC reserve fund reduction is contained in the general provisions in Title VI rather than with the agency funding in Title V and is reflected in the totals.

c. Budget authority transferred to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's (FDIC's) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is not included in total FSGG appropriations; it is counted as part of the budget authority in the appropriation account from which it came.

d. The General Services Administration's (GSA's) real property activities are funded through the Federal Buildings Fund (FBF), a multibillion-dollar revolving fund into which federal agencies deposit rental payments for leased GSA space. Congress makes the FBF revenue available each year to pay for GSA's real property activities. A negative total for the FBF occurs when the amount of funds made available for expenditure in a fiscal year is less than the amount of new revenue expected to be deposited.

e. Amount as shown in the committee reports; figures do not include appropriations for repayments of principal on the construction of the Archives II facility. The amount included in the President's budget request and the specific appropriations bills includes this principal repayment.

Financial Regulatory Agencies and FSGG Appropriations

Although financial services are a focus of the FSGG bill, the bill does not actually include funding for the regulation of much of the financial services industry.11 Financial services as an industry is often subdivided into banking, insurance, and securities. Federal regulation of the banking industry is divided among the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (generally known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB).12 In addition, credit unions, which operate similarly to many banks, are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). None of these agencies receives its primary funding through the appropriations process, with only the FDIC inspector general and a small NCUA-operated program currently funded in the FSGG bill.

Insurance is generally regulated at the state level, with some Federal Reserve oversight at the holding company level. There is a relatively small Federal Insurance Office (FIO) inside the Treasury, which is funded through the Departmental Offices account, but FIO has no regulatory authority.13

Federal securities regulation is divided between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC, both of which are funded through appropriations.14 The CFTC funding is a relatively straightforward appropriation from the general fund, whereas the SEC funding is provided by the FSGG bill, but then offset through fees collected by the SEC.

Although funding for many financial regulatory agencies may not be provided by the FSGG bill, legislative provisions affecting financial regulation in general and some of these agencies specifically have often been included in FSGG bills. In the 115th Congress, H.R. 6258 and H.R. 6147 as passed by the House included many provisions, particularly in Title IX, that would have amended the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act15 and other statutes relating to the regulation of financial institutions and the authority and funding of financial regulators. Many of these provisions were included in other legislation, notably H.R. 10,16 which passed the House on June 8, 2017, and S. 488 as amended by the House, which passed the House on July 17, 2018, though neither of these bills were enacted in the 115th Congress. Of particular interest from the appropriations perspective, H.R. 6258 and H.R. 6147 as passed by the House would have brought the CFPB under the FSGG bill instead of receiving funding from outside of the appropriations process, as is currently the case.17S. 3107 and H.R. 6147 as passed by the Senate did not include similar provisions affecting the CFPB or other aspects of financial regulation as in Title IX of the House bills.

In the 116th Congress, the bills passed by the House (H.R. 21 and H.R. 648) did not include financial regulatory provisions similar to those in the 115th Congress House-passed bill, and neither did the enacted P.L. 116-6.

Committee Structure and Scope

The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reorganized their subcommittee structures in early 2007. Each chamber created a new Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. In the House, the FSGG Subcommittee's jurisdiction is primarily composed of agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies, commonly referred to as TTHUD.18 In addition, the House FSGG Subcommittee was assigned four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the SEC, and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

In the Senate, the new FSGG Subcommittee's jurisdiction is a combination of agencies from the jurisdiction of three previously existing subcommittees. Most of the agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee were assigned to the FSGG subcommittee.19 In addition, the District of Columbia, which had its own subcommittee in the 109th Congress, was placed under the purview of the FSGG Subcommittee, as were four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the FCC, FTC, SEC, and SBA. As a result of this reorganization, the House and Senate FSGG Subcommittees have nearly identical jurisdictions, except that the CFTC is under the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee in the Senate and the Agriculture Subcommittee in the House.

CRS FSGG Appropriations Experts

Table 4 below lists various departments and agencies funded through FSGG appropriations and the CRS experts' names pertaining to these departments and agencies.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2019, Appendix (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2016), p. 10. Savings estimate from H.Rept. 115-792 and S.Rept. 115-281.

Exceptions to this are the Department of the Treasury's "Departmental Offices—Salaries and Expenses" account, which is funded at a rate approximately 6% higher than FY2018 (Section 121); the District of Columbia, which may expend local funds at the rate provided for in the District's own budget (Section 122); and the Small Business Administration, which may apportion funding for the "Business Loans Program Account" up to the rate necessary to accommodate increased demand for Section 7(a) loans (Section 123).

The agencies previously under the jurisdiction of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies (TTHUD) that did not become part of the FSGG Subcommittee were the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

The agencies that did not transfer from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies to FSGG were DOT, HUD, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.